Honored at Every Stage

A retelling based on God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi (chapter IX). Words in quotation marks are from that book.

Of His departure from Baghdád on the twelfth day of Riḍván, Bahá'u'lláh wrote: "He (God) it was Who enabled Me to depart out of the city (Baghdád), clothed with such majesty as none, except the denier and the malicious, can fail to acknowledge." Shoghi Effendi records that such marks of homage "continued to surround Him until He was installed in Constantinople."

On 9 May 1863 the caravan left Firayját, His first stopping-place, with members of His family and twenty-six of His disciples. It had fifty mules, a mounted guard of ten soldiers with their officer, and seven pairs of howdahs. It moved by easy stages, over no less than a hundred and ten days, across the uplands of eastern Anatolia to the port of Sámsún on the Black Sea. Bahá'u'lláh rode at times on horseback and at times in the howdah reserved for Him, often surrounded by His companions, most of whom went on foot.

Before He left, the governor of Baghdád, Námiq Páshá, had given the escorting officer a written order telling the governors of the provinces on the route to show the exiles the utmost consideration. All along the way governors, officials, muftís, qáḍís and notables gave Bahá'u'lláh an enthusiastic reception. In Kárkúk, in Irbíl, in Mosul, where He stayed three days, in Nisíbín, Mardín, Díyár-Bakr, Khárpút, Sívas and in smaller villages, a delegation would meet Him just before He arrived, and another would ride with Him for some distance when He left. "The festivities which, at some stations, were held in His honor, the food the villagers prepared and brought for His acceptance, the eagerness which time and again they exhibited in providing the means for His comfort, recalled the reverence which the people of Baghdád had shown Him on so many occasions."

A fellow-traveller remembered the morning they passed through Mardín: "we were preceded by a mounted escort of government soldiers, carrying their banners, and beating their drums in welcome." The local governor and notables went with them, men, women and children crowded the housetops and streets, and the officials escorted them for a considerable distance beyond the town. Nabíl wrote that the people they met all agreed they had never before seen anyone on that road, though governors passed along it constantly, "travel in such state, dispense such hospitality to all, and accord to each so great a share of his bounty."

As He approached Sámsún, Bahá'u'lláh caught sight of the Black Sea from His howdah and, at the request of Mírzá Áqá Ján, revealed the Lawḥ-i-Hawdaj (Tablet of the Howdah). Its allusions to the "Divine Touchstone" and "the grievous and tormenting Mischief" reaffirmed the dire predictions of the Tablet of the Holy Mariner, revealed not long before. In Sámsún the Chief Inspector of the whole province, with several páshás, called on Him, showed Him the utmost respect and was His guest at luncheon. Seven days after arriving, Bahá'u'lláh was put on board a Turkish steamer bound for Constantinople.

This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi.

Effendi, S.. (1944). *God Passes By*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/shoghi-effendi/god-passes-by/